Karambunai Land Is Off-Limits

The purported investment projects promoted by two different parties over a piece of questionable land at Karambunai here have been thwarted when the relevant authorities rejected their applications.

The scheme was promoted as Sky World Holdings, the same company that was under police investigation last year on the pretext of developing a tourism project featuring the replicas of the world landmarks including the Petronas Twin Towers, Eiffel Tower and others.

“They came back again but this time they went a step further readied with an interim development plan for a proposed integrated resort and had submitted the proposed plan to the Sabah's Central Planning Board for approval,” Karambunai Land Holdings (KLH) Sdn Bhd director Raja Sundra Lingam @ Sunny Kelvin disclosed during a press conference at his office here yesterday.

Last time, they claimed it was the first phase of the development and this time around they have changed the concept a bit to build the Chinese, Vietnamese and other villages, he said.

“We have also received information that an alleged Sabah business chamber has made an application asking the Central Planning Board for rezoning part of Karambunai ridge conservation and village areas for a proposed residential project,” Sunny disclosed.

Fortunately, both the applications were rejected by the Central Planning Board for national security reason because the proposed site for the tourism project was near to the Sepanggar naval base while the proposed residential project was situated on the terrain area which is not allowed, he said.

KLH Sdn Bhd executive chairman Radia Suhaili said they decided to highlight the matters to avoid the general public and investors from being duped by the scams as there are individuals and companies who are taking advantage of the land in Karambunai peninsula.

Radia who is the administrator of the said estate asserted the land in Karambunai peninsula was actually non-transferable as it was a perpetual grant based on royal lineages where she explained in full details with supporting documents tracing back to the early days of the Brunei Sultanate.

She encouraged would-be investors to approach them as they are the rightful administrator of the land.

“The High Court of Sabah and Sarawak has already resealed letters of administration to the named administrator under the Probate Court of Brunei Darussalam.

“The said documents have been sent to the respective government department as to the registration of the named administrator since 2013 and until today, no result was given as to the delay in undertaking the court's order,” she said.

All sorts of actions are still initiated into the said land title even though objections were lodged to the Land and Survey office. Even the newspapers have highlighted the issues of attempted land scam, she pointed out.

The land administrator has already written three letters to the Sabah State Secretary on January and August this year and copied to the Sabah Chief Minister and the Foreign Office of England but so far no response was recovered, KLH Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Christopher Chan revealed.

“We want to resolve this issue to stop our state being a scam centre and also seek the Sabah Government and departments to resolve the right that we had and enshrined in the Sabah State Constitution,” Chan said.

Meanwhile, they will lodge a report at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over the unresolved problem which they have been pursuing since 2009.